covering hawai'i's state team sport since 1996 - Pacific Paddler

From Dragon Boats to Outriggers
By Lily Matsubara
Anuenue’s Novice B Mixed crew with Lily
stroking the MacFarlane race
Think of paddling and it
would be an outrigger canoe for
most of you. For me, it meant something
different. Born and raised in
Singapore, I had never heard of an
outrigger canoe until I came to Hawaii.
The only type of paddling we had
was dragon-boating which I picked
up in high school. So when I learned
of paddling clubs and paddling races
here in Hawaii, I knew that I wanted
to paddle again. The outrigger canoe
doesn’t come close to looking like a
dragon boat but I figured that it was
worth a try, and thus began my first
paddling season - Hawaiian style.
My first day out paddling, I came
home feeling sore in the muscles I had
not used in the longest time. It had
been 20 years since I last dragon
boated but despite the years, the
soreness in the muscles felt so very
familiar - it was like welcoming an old
friend back into my life again. As I
hobbled around with my sore muscles,
it dawned on me that paddling an
outrigger canoe basically uses the
same muscles as dragon boating.
“OK,” I thought. “Maybe my years of
dragon boating will help me learn this
new style of paddling.” I was right and
I was also wrong.
I didn’t have to worry much about
sore muscles after my first two paddling
practices. It was as though my body
recognized those muscles to be used
and immediately adjusted to their
needs. But there were certainly other
things I had to worry about. One was
the changes from one side to the other
when paddling. In dragon boating,
you don’t change sides. You are either
a right paddler or a left paddler. I was
a left paddler and naturally, my strokes
were more developed on my left. As I
paddled the outrigger canoe, I had to
learn how to even out the strokes on
my right side to match my left side. This
was in addition to figuring out how to
perform the changes as smoothly as
possible without hitting the person in
front or the sides of the canoe! I had
much to learn and this was only the
beginning.
Just when I thought all I needed
to do was to work on my changes, I
had a practice session where all of
us rotated our seats in the canoe after
every few minutes of paddling. Until
then, I had only paddled in five. When
it was my turn to be in two, I was overwhelmed.
Now I had to work on my
changes, count the strokes, make the
call and follow number one who was
paddling on the opposite side – and,
watch the ama. In dragon boating,
you just followed the rhythm of the
person in front of you who paddled
on the same side – no need to count
the strokes, to make a call or make a
change. The drummer on the dragon
boat sets the pace and you just go with
it. Dragon boating was starting to look
a whole lot simpler to me.
When I moved up to one, there
was more waiting. My recovery in my
stroke was faster than what it should
be to enable the boat to glide. Glide
It was another awakening to learn that
the outrigger canoe glides. The dragon
boat doesn’t glide - it is not made to
glide. Therefore in dragon boating,
you want the recovery in the stroke to
be just as fast as your pulling stroke so
that the boat doesn’t lose the forward
momentum that each stroke brings.
But in an outrigger canoe, you want
the boat to glide. This means giving
the boat the time to glide during the
recovery phase, hence not rushing the
recovery in the stroke. The sleekness
of the outrigger canoe began to make
sense to me.
By this time, the practice sessions
had moved from long distance out in
open water to sprints in the Ala Wai.
Being in the Novice B crew, we didn’t
have to worry about performing turns
– or so I thought. On one practice
session, I sat in two with an experienced
paddler in one. We were going
to do turns and I had no idea what
to do. As we came close to the buoy,
number one had to cue me when to
call the changes. I did as I was cued
but had no idea what I was doing.
I was lost. In dragon boating, the
steersman did all the steering and the
paddlers simply paddled. I had an
endless stream of questions for my
paddle mates by the time that practice
session ended.
One month into my paddling
season, the regatta season began. I
was excited, intrigued and nervous at
the same time for my first race. Excited
because it would be my first race
after all those years of not racing, let
alone paddling. I was also intrigued
to hear that there were 39 categories
in the race. In the dragon boat races
that I participated in Singapore, there
were only a handful of categories
– Open Category (Men, Women, Mix),
Corporate (Men, Women, Mix) and
Under-18 boys (there was no category
for Under-18 girls because of the small
number of Under-18 girls participating
in the sport at that time) – and each
category would race a distance of 500
meters (0.31 mile). (This was 20 years
ago. The current dragon boat races in
Singapore have more categories but it
is still a lot smaller than 39 categories.)
Most of all though, I was nervous. I
couldn’t quite picture what the race
would be like – especially the start. In
dragon boating, the officials used the
bullhorn to let the boats know to “Get
ready” and then it was the starter’s gun
to signal the “Go”. So when I asked
my paddle mates what the starting was
like, I had a difficult time imagining the
flags going “yellow, yellow, yellow,
red, green”. I was used to “hearing”
the start and not “looking” at the start,
and because I was sitting in one, I was
a little worried.
With this mix of excitement and
nervousness, the first race day arrived.
What a relief it was when I learned
that there would be boat holders and
the boat holder would watch the flags
and yell us the “Go!” - it was one less
thing for me to worry about. With my
adrenalin running at the start line, I
hit the water with the “Go!” and went
all the way to the finish – that was my
mistake. My dragon boating instinct
had kicked in when I hit the water. I did
not stretch out my strokes after the first
two changes to allow the boat to glide
but instead, I upped my pace. My pull
and my recovery were way too fast,
especially for the guys in my crew. We
did not get the speed we could have
gotten if I had stretched out my strokes,
and we were completely spent by the
time we crossed the finish line. I had a
lot to work on before the next race.
With another week’s practice
behind me, I looked forward to the
second race at Kailua. The water was
choppy and the waves were of decent
size in Kailua that day. This time, I
reined in my pace and remembered
to stretch my strokes. What I didn’t
foresee were the waves hitting the
ama. A little more than halfway into
the quarter mile, a wave hit our ama
and we hulied. Needless to say, the
Novice B crew had never experienced
a huli before nor performed a huli drill.
I saw the nose of the boat tilting to
one side in slow motion and before I
realized, we were in the water. With
everyone safe, my concern was no
longer about the race but on how to get
the boat up. None of us knew what to
do. We needn’t have worried though
because in no time, the experienced
paddlers from our club were diving into
the water from the official’s boat with
buckets in hand to help us out of our
predicament. It was, in the words of a
paddle mate, our “baptism by water”.
And so, as the regatta season
comes to a close, I look back to the
last two months with fondness. There
is so much to learn and not enough
hours to practice, or so it seems. Yes,
dragon boating and outrigger paddling
are quite different indeed. Over and
beyond the difference in how the
dragon boat is built and the type of
paddle used (as a paddle mate has
said so very succinctly, paddling the
dragon boat is like paddling with a
2X4 board), I have found that paddling
the outrigger canoe demands a solid
understanding of the ocean and the
skillful execution of the paddling techniques
that go with it.
Despite these differences, there
is one thing that remains the same
for me. It is the exhilarating joy and
immense peace I get from being out in
the water - everything else falls a far
second. With my first regatta season
just about behind me, I look forward
to the distance season to begin. And I
smile to think of what new experiences
await me.
Lily was born and raised in
Singapore. She is currently working
on a Master’s degree in Early
Child Education at the University
of Hawaii. Her crew was the first
OHCRA alternate in the Novice
B Mixed division for the State
Championships this year.
30 February ‘08, Pacific Paddler www.pacificpaddler.com www.pacificpaddler.com Pacific Paddler, February ‘08 31